Alexander Wassiljewitsch Gorbatow

Alexander Wassiljewitsch Gorbatow (after 1955)

Alexander Wassiljewitsch Gorbatow ( Russian Александр Васильевич Горбатов ; born March 21, 1891 in Palech ; † December 7, 1973 in Moscow ) - was a Soviet Army General (1955) and Hero of the Soviet Union (1945). In the Second World War from 1943 to 1945 he was commander of the 3rd Army and 1950–1954 commander of the Soviet air force.

Life

Alexander Gorbatow was born in 1891 as a farmer's son in the village of Pahotino (now Palech) in Ivanovo Oblast . In 1902 he graduated from an agricultural school and worked alternately in the summer on his father's farm and in the winter in a shoe factory in Schuja .

Early military career

In October 1912 he entered the tsarist military service and served in the 17th Chernigov Hussar Regiment. During the First World War he fought in Galicia , the Carpathians and on the Stochod , was promoted to sergeant and was awarded several medals and the George Cross for his bravery .

He joined the Red Army as a volunteer in August 1919 and fought during the civil war, initially in a cavalry squadron, from April 1920 in the 58th Cavalry Regiment and from August of the same year in an independent Bashkir cavalry brigade. At the end of 1920 he fought against the armies of General AI Denikin and against the troops of SV Petljura . Since 1919 he was a member of the CPSU . After the civil war, in 1921 he became the commander of the 7th Cossack Cavalry Regiment of Chernigov and in 1928 the commander of a cavalry division of the 3rd Cavalry Division. On January 11, 1933, he became the commander of the 4th Turkestan Mountain Cavalry Division, which was garrisoned in Merw . Between 1926 and 1930 he completed several advanced training courses in Moscow. On November 26, 1935 he reached the rank of brigade commander and in May 1936 was appointed commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division (7th Cavalry Corps) stationed in Starokonstantinov in the Kiev military district .

During the mass repression in the Red Army in September 1937, Gorbatov was removed from his post and expelled from the CPSU “because of contact with the enemies of the people”. In March 1938 he was reappointed deputy commander of the 6th Cavalry Corps. During the second wave of Stalin's purges , he was again suspended in October 1938, arrested on May 8, 1939 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and 5 years imprisonment under Article 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. The punishment took place in the Kolyma prison camp , where he fell ill with scurvy . After re-examining his case, he was released on March 5, 1941 and, after treatment in a sanatorium, was appointed deputy commander of the 25th Rifle Corps in April of the same year.

Patriotic War

At the beginning of the Patriotic War he fought as part of the 19th Army on the Western Front and took part in the Battle of Vitebsk in early July 1941 . He and his troops were cut off from the main power, rearranged his retreating units and was able to defend himself in the Jarzewo area for four days. On July 22nd, he was injured in the fighting and flown to Moscow for treatment. After his recovery, he was appointed commander of the 226th Rifle Division on October 1, 1941, which was used in the Southwest Front and in defensive battles in the Kharkov area.

On December 25, 1941, he was promoted to major general and awarded the Order of the Red Banner . From June 1942 he acted as an inspector of the cavalry on the Southwest Front and from August - in the same position on the Stalingrad Front . In October 1942 he was Deputy Commander of the 24th Army of Stalingrad - later the Don Front and a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad . On April 28, 1943 he was promoted to lieutenant general and took over the leadership of the 20th Guards Corps of the 4th Guards Army . From June 1943 until the end of the war in 1945 he was in command of the 3rd Army and was appointed Colonel General on June 29, 1944 . His troops fought in the operations of Oryol , Bryansk , Chernigov-Pripyat , Belarus and Lomsha. For his achievements in breaking through the enemy defensive positions in East Prussia , he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on April 10, 1945. After using his troops in the Berlin operation , after the death of Colonel General Nikolai Bersarin in June 1945, he was appointed city commander of Berlin, at the same time he took over command of the 5th Shock Army in East Germany.

post war period

In November 1945 he was appointed at the same time as the command of the air troops in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . From November 1946 he commanded the 11th Guard Army in the Baltic Military District. Since March 1950 he was in command of the Air Guard and from May 1953 in command of the Air Force. In May 1954 he was promoted to command of the Baltic Military District and on August 8, 1955, he was promoted to Army General. From April 1958 he served on the board of the group of inspectors general in the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. From 1952 to 1961 he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR . He died on December 7, 1973 in Moscow and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

literature

• А. В. Горбатов: Годы и войны , 2-е издание.- Воениздат, Moscow 1980

Web links

Commons : Alexander Wassiljewitsch Gorbatow  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/gorbatov/index.html
• http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=959